One girl's mission to becoming a fitness guru

Month: October 2015

A few weeks ago, the yoga studio invited a couple to come teach us about Ayurveda-more specifically Marma (which is essential Ayurvedic acupressure). They discussed yoga, body types, diet, massage techniques, and so much more. It was all so fascinating! I could share all the notes I took, but we’ll save that for another post.

Okay, so what does this have to do with a smoothie adventure?

One of the biggest things emphasized was digestion. Not just physical digestion of food, but digestion of the total self and others around you. How can you digest your giant breakfast, your own life, and anyone else’s life all at once?

On top of that, they also discussed when/ what to eat during these times depending on your body type. Food consumption between 10am and 2pm- especially in the summer- should be as liquid based as possible. It is the hottest time of the day for the human body internally, and a solid meal at this time will take more energy to break down, leaving the individual slower.

Well, this was interesting. I have been dealing with a weird heat rash that appears every summer right on my stomach. I was told it’s because I am very sensitive to this heat fluctuation of my core temperature. Interesting, no?

I wanted to see if this “liquid lunch” would make a difference for my heat rash, so for the past two weeks I’ve been having very light lunches or smoothies.

Today, I was really struggling. What I call a “two-cup-of-coffee” kind of day and thus this daring blend was born.

Ingredients:

8 ozs of coffee (any flavor-but I chose columbian blend)

I’m not even joking about the next ingredients.

Let me just say though, I was trying to think about blending flavors while still getting benefits and was prepared for something lacking in flavor but bursting in nutrition:

1/2 cup of frozen blueberries

2/3 cups of fresh kale

1/2 cup of milk

1 scoop of vanilla protein powder

1 medium sized banana

ice

I know, I know. I was kind of terrified too.

I had to try it.

Funny thing is, it just tasted like a sweetened coffee! If I had a better blender I wouldn’t have even known kale was in it! The best name I can come up with is the Caffeinated Kale Smoothie… I’ll work on the name a bit.

The product of this smoothie came out to something quite similar to this.

Each student is asked to present something before graduating about yoga. Anything yoga related. Which really leaves the door open to many possibilities- I had a very hard time figuring out what I wanted to do. So, I kept taking classes, teaching classes, and learning. I figured maybe the right subject would appear and life would be easy. Nope, that did not happen. One month from completion and I was still at a loss.

So, I took a step back and thought about what Ifocused on the most- having a good base.

Every balance pose starts off with a strong foundation

This can mean physically having a good base in a posture. Working on the feet or the hands and then going from there. I started to focus on getting stronger arms so I could get better at arm balances and inversions.Working with the fingers and toes to hold weight evenly through out for longer periods of time. Learning to trust your body and knowing it’s limits and knowing when to push those limits.

This can mean spiritually and existentially having a good base. Felling like you have a place or a purpose while on this earth that is similar or unique to those surrounding you-and being perfectly okay with that. Believing or not believing in something greater that brings you deeper into the human experience.

This can mean mentally and emotionally having a good base. Grounding within yourself is very important when faced with obstacles and uncertainty. Counting on the strength and security you have from within to get you through trying times, and knowing yourself inside and out.

This is something I have been dealing with for a long time, and teacher training helped me find my base. I’ve opened up to new opportunities because I am secure with myself. Instead of saying no, I say yes, and I’ve taken part in some pretty cool events because of that. Relationships have grown because I am not afraid to say how I feel anymore. I can now say I believe that I am important and if you love me, you’ll listen to what I have to say. Some relationships have even been broken because I know my limits and what I can take and sometimes you just have to let things go.

While training at the gym and learning more and more about yoga, I was honored to have a client and a yoga student who I tried to pass this along to.

Will is in Med school and works here at the desk with me, he’s very smart and athletic, but has crippling panic attacks and consuming anxiety. He asked me to teach him yoga to help him relax and stretch out his legs. I decided to take it a step further with him- to his emotional base. We repeated sun salutation A and B breath by breath. My goal was to get him to know it by heart, so that when he found his heart racing in class he could just sit and do them in his head, imagining his body working with his mind… inhale arms up, exhale fold… We also worked on some fun poses to challenge him and show him how much fun yoga can be!

What Will and I worked on

My client, Donna, came to me as a shy, middle aged woman, who was trying to get fitness back into her life. Her initial goal was to touch her toes, but I wanted to help her physical base all around. Over the months of us working together, her self image and body awareness skyrocketed. It was a slow start, but now she can walk all over the gym with her head held high. She’s confident in her workouts and she trusts her body when I push her outside her comfort zone. She’s still working on reaching her toes, but getting in touch with her body has changed not only her physical base, but her entire base. She even told me that before she met me, she was a “defeated old woman. I helped give her back her life and the desire to really live again”.

I know that I won’t get a lot of time with each student, but if any little part of finding your base can be absorbed from a class, or a series, private session, or even a personal training session, I’ll feel pretty good.

If not, then at least I tried. That’s the best you can do sometimes. »♥«